60 Richmond East Housing Development is the first co-operative housing development to be built in Toronto in almost 20 years. Ground-breaking in its architectural aesthetic and sustainable philosophy, 60 Richmond is an urban infill project that incorporates a dynamic building program and Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) initiatives.

A dedicated team of stakeholders spearheaded a process of innovation and responsibility that would inform all aspects of this project from its initial conception to its occupancy in March 2010.

These stakeholders include: the City of Toronto municipal government, the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC), the Co-operative Housing Federation of Toronto (CHFT), UNITE HERE, Local 75 - the hospitality workers’ union and the Local 75 Housing Co-operative Inc. – the body established to specifically manage 60 Richmond East. 60 Richmond East is home to individuals and families displaced from Regent Park, one of the city’s largest social housing projects. As part of this major revitalization, the project is specifically geared to housing workers in the hospitality and food industry who are employed in downtown Toronto.

This rent-geared-to-income residential project, at the corner of Dundas and Sackville Streets, addresses the needs of families with children, and the elderly; two important groups within the Regent Park community.

An eight-storey mid-rise building houses 75 family units, including two-storey townhouse units at grade, while an adjacent 22- storey tower contains 150 units for senior individuals and couples.

The buildings are linked by a two-storey podium programmed with retail space, indoor amenity space for families and rooftop outdoor amenity space for the elderly. Indoor amenities for seniors are situated on the 8th floor of the tower.

As the template for the redevelopment of the Regent Park community, the Sackville-Dundas Apartments fulfill the following objectives of the Regent Park redevelopment, and the City of Toronto Official Plan: accommodate diverse housing types; articulate a convincing and urbane response to density; enrich the public realm; and integrate a broad range of sustainable design strategies, including a heating and cooling co-generation plant that, once fully built-out, will serve the entire 70-acre Regent Park redevelopment area.

The House in Frogs Hollow, a 2000SF residence completed in August 2009, is located in Grey Highlands, Ontario on a long slope of the Niagara Escarpment overlooking Georgian Bay.

The clients, who gather at the property throughout the year, are avid cyclists who spent months on the property prior to construction camping and cutting in discreet mountain biking trails. A primary site strategy was therefore to resist the inclination to build on the tops of the hills and instead carve out a footprint at the base of the hillside. The house is not the final destination, but a stopping place within their network of activity. The house’s connection to the land is reinforced not only by its architectural form, but also in its environmental footprint. The house is heated with radiant floor loops that supplement passive winter heat gain from south facing windows.

There is also no mechanical cooling. Instead, the stair tower and operable windows facilitate passive ventilation that draws cool air through the house from shaded exterior areas. Natural materials and pigments were used.

A common thread in all WILLIAMSONWILLIAMSON projects is the use of digital fabrication techniques in a manner that privileges material exploration and critically engages traditional modes of construction. In the House in Frogs Hollow this technique was used to create the innovative cladding system and stair enclosure.

Completed in May 2010 and located on the shores of Lake Osoyoos, in the South Okanagan, this single-family residence was designed to enhance the owner's recreational life style. The house is located on a very narrow lot, limited by the setbacks to a 30 x 50 footprint. Designing the Elenko residence was an opportunity to experiment with a compact footprint, a challenging compact site and to engage with an owner, committed to solving the physical constraints of his property with a creative architectural solution.

The building aesthetics is intended to be a simple and functional solution that responds to the Semi Desert Climate, the projects economic restraints and the waterfront context. Due to the constraint of the site, spaces were stacked on one another creating a two-storey home, with a roof garden for relaxing or entertaining. The building incorporates passive strategies to control heat gain and to minimize energy consumption. Natural ventilation relieves the house of heat gain by allowing a breeze to form between the lower and upper windows.

The original house was unremarkable in a number of ways; a typical semi-detached house from the early 20th century it had small rooms and darker finishes that made it feel smaller than it was for a lack of light. The owner, originally from a small island in the Caribbean, was interested in creating a house that made a strong connection to the landscape and streetscape, and a fluid live-work dynamic for her and her family in what was a relatively small footprint.

The project is chiefly a renovation, with a small addition on the third floor. The design strategy revolved around drawing additional light, air and views from above. A dramatic three storey space in the middle of the house is topped by skylights, and suffuses all three floors with light; operable skylight vents in the north slope of the roof create a stack effect that passively ventilates and cools the house. There are views of the neighbourhood and the sky from every point on the ground, second and third floors.